In one of the first posts I wrote for this blog, I expressed the opinion that much of public space in Mexico City has been raped. Enormous billboards are not only in your face on the inner-city highways, but they also hover over the main boulevards. In residential neighborhoods they sometimes are painted on the sides of buildings or hang like banners over balconies and terraces.

A friend – let’s just say he is a gringo well into his sixties – saw that post and said he thought I had been harsh in my assessment. “Don’t forget,” he said. “There are all those ads of women in their underwear.”